Titanic

A über-film where everything is exactly in place and the process of communicative narration reaches almost absolute perfection. In the first half we get all the information and clues needed to make the second half one of the most breathtaking audiovisual passages in film history, not to mention the overwhelming emotional impact and mandatory narrative build-up. Cameron had many ways to depict the destruction of the Titanic, but he chose the best and most human one – through passionate love, taking us into the narrowest corners and the most luxurious suites of the dream ship, whose tragic fate we can follow in the end as her good and sincerely grieving friends. The sunken cinematic heart that set the rhythm of Hollywood cinema for years to come. (04/22/2011)

With Titanic, Cameron finally achieved his benchmark in the field of the grandiose chick-flick, and its success then confirmed to him who really makes the decisions here about what’s worth a visit to the cinema.  Except that Titanic is also an insanely polished diamond in this regard, and it is almost irritating how clearly this can be seen in everything. Apart from the main love story, everything feels terribly mechanical, staged, stereotypical, and lifeless. Every character here has only one purpose: Rose's fiancé, for example, is almost comical in his villainy, always safely taking the worst side in every situation. Interestingly, the characters of Jack and Rose don't work on their own either, but thankfully they work perfectly safely together where it's surprisingly believable how Rose takes the initiative over Jack from a certain point onwards, to the point of motherly binding him to her bosom after their romp in the car leaves the boy so moved he's shaking. Unfortunately, the fateful night itself is terribly studio lit, the trick photography has aged a bit, and the whole space of the Titanic feels compromised to the point of theatricality. (11/06/2022)

I’m giving one star for the ship itself, otherwise, it’s a mockery of all those who died in the tragedy. I can only imagine Cameron thinking: "Lots of dead people. Awesome! Let’s just throw in some famous actors, a love story, and epic music, and we'll make a killing." Hooray! Mission accomplished. (06/26/2016)

I avoided Titanic like a demon a cross, but eventually it caught up with me... And oddly enough, it wasn't a head-on collision, but rather a light miss. The story is sweet and protracted, but as soon as the overgrown steamer began to sink, there was plenty to watch - I finally recognized it as Cameron's work. Surprisingly, I quite liked the unruly Leonardo DiCaprio, but I didn't know much about the bourgeois maiden Kate Winslet. It's just shabby love story that Cameron painted gold. In places the paint is sparse, so rust shines through. Definitely a classic seasonal hit... Edit 2012: beautiful proof of how often a person is wrong. To see this film as a kitsch love story actually hides the essence of what Titanic really is: the product of Cameron's massive fetishism and a metaphorical path to the coveted object that comes to life with the power of the film and allows the filmmaker to lead the viewer through its lost nooks. The director simply captures the feeling that still seizes me today when I look at a dead wreck in the depths - a burning longing to "give faded matter meaning and shape with a story". The result is a film full of contradictions, but above all a film extremely precisely constructed and economically told. All the pleasure from it comes from pure rationality. If Rose says: "It doesn't make sense, that's why I believe it," I say "Everything makes sense here, that's why I believe it (but I do not succumb :-))". (01/25/2004)

Today's 3D screening at Imax only confirmed what every viewer probably already knows: Titanic will never get old. It’s still brimming with energy, moving and tragic, funny and technically epic as it was 15 years ago. And it has survived everything. Even the pastime back then of mocking DiCaprio, who at the time was the personification of posters and stickers in teen magazines, suffered from the adoration of whiny teenage girls, and is now one of the world's most respected actors. Cameron's Titanic has survived the rapid evolution in the field of visual effects and even today can stand proudly next to all sorts of visually lavish flicks, without getting get lost and or blushing with shame. And just as I enjoyed the technical precision of the reconstruction of the sinking itself before, I now enjoy the romantic storyline, which is definitely not a Pretty Woman type of thing, Cameron endowed it with lightness, wit and a pleasant feeling at the heart. And as time goes by, the film is appreciated (and cherished) by a new and younger generation of viewers. The proof is in FilmBooster itself, when I registered in 2002, Titanic had an average rating of 75%. And today? You can see for yourselves! Bugger me, it was awesome! (04/11/2012)